Promised Land: A Novel of Israel

The novel has special resonance for me. I lived in Israel in the years leading up to the '67 War which is the climax of this saga. In fact I wrote my first novel, still unpublished, on the same subject. Aside from that, the author takes a difficult subject in all its complexity and treats it with authority,detail and balance. The characters are compelling and empathetic. You get the pain, the dislocation, the struggle for survival. War and passion are graphically presented. At times the characters seem a bit larger than life. Real events and people are woven skillfully into the fiction. The Israel depicted is not the one the media paints today. People who question its integrity would do well to absorb the historic insights that are skillfully woven into this novel. It's a thoroughly satisfying and engaging read. Sheldon Greene is a novelist, renewable energy executive, and public interest lawyer.

To say it reminded me of Exodus is high praise. Complex characters and story about Jews in Israel after 1947. Moving when it touches upon lives of Holocaust survivors and how they were affected. Characters well drawn and multidimensional. Updated in that views of Arabs and their dilemma are presented fairly. Well written,suspenseful,difficult to put down. Really enjoyed it, and I’m not easy to please.

Promised Land, which is written by a man who knows Israel intimately, is set in the years from 1950 to 1967, providing an accurate glimpse of life during a time when there was much doubt that the fledgling Jewish state could last. Peter and his younger brother Arie, are survivors of the Holocaust who fall in love with the same woman, a Jewish refugee from Cairo. Peter joins the Mossad and marries a female colleague, while Arie persuades Tamara, the Egyptian beauty, to marry him. Through years of married life, the birth of several children, and two major wars in which Arie serves as a combat soldier, we see how their lives progress and change. These brothers are very different except for their determination to put the war behind them and to find happiness and purpose in their new home. Arie relentlessly pursues success in business and becomes a wealthy entrepreneur. By the end of the Six Day War, we see how underlying conflicts between them affect their relationship. A great surprise awaits them both at the end of the story. This is a book worth reading more than once.

A warm, emotion-laden story of a family centered around two brothers (Cain and Abel?) who immigrate to Israel in its earliest days, one from Europe after surviving a concentration camp, the other from America, where he had been sent by his parents to escape the Nazis. It is, at the same time, a story of the growth of an Israel besieged by surrounding Arab states as it struggles for survival among the nations. Author Martin Fletcher, a former NBC-TV correspondent who has lived in Israel for many decades, fills this fast-paced, eminently readable novel with exacting details that brings the Jewish state alive, especially to those who have lived it -- from the Kassit café on crowded Dizengoff Street to the ancient remains of a glass factory up the Mediterranean coast from Tel Aviv to Sidna Ali. Even meeting Isser Harel, Israel’s first Mossad chief, becomes an experience. The two brothers – one who takes risks to gather riches, the other a trained Mossad assassin -- fall in love early on with the same woman. In raising their families amid the constant threat of hostilities and war with Egypt during the 1956 Suez crisis, the novel tells the story of personal sacrifices and broadens the canvas to include the birth of a nation.

As a follow up to Exodus, it is not. While I appreciate the family conflict that plays a major part in this novel, I believe it totally failed to deal with the hate which emanates against the nation of Israel from the belief system that is Islam. That would be what I would have expected from a novel that was a follow up to Exodus.

A visual insight into the struggle of Jews from Nazi Germany as well as Egypt during WWII to become the early post war settlers in the land of Israel. Their very different ways of developing this new nation into the Country it has become is captivating to the reader.

Promised Land is a riveting tale of suspense melded with a complex love story and set against the backdrop of Israel’s early history. It also sheds light - in a most balanced way - on Israel's historic challenges and will to survive that continue today. Quite a feat.The characters are completely believable. They are richly drawn - noble, conflicted, imperfect, passionate.Martin Fletcher is a born storyteller. And we know from his journalistic achievements that he is at his best when that story comes from truth.I can't wait until the next one.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The story is intriguing and gives one some insight into the struggle for existence in the early years of the establishment of Israel. A young country, started by believers who chose to build an amazing state, by using every bead of sweat , blood and tears, knowing that it meant life if they succeeded or death if they failed. So many broken hearted people, survivors of WW11 who participated in this struggle just as the protagonist and his family did. A human interest story told through the lives of two brothers and a woman they both loved.

Excellent book, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Taking you through the Holocaust to 1960's. Can't wait for the next in the series.

Martin Fletcher has managed to write a book that is reminder of the real day to day struggle Israelis have faced internally and externally from Day 1 A read which covers the full spectrum of emotions HOPE MF will write a sequel

An excellent portrayal of human nature - beautifully written and with vivid images of life as it was in Israel in the years following independence.